Cape to Cairo Grogan

 Ewart Grogan was born in London on 12th December 1874, his father's (William) fourteenth child, the first with his second wife, Jane.  It seems that the family was fiercely proud of their Irish ancestry that could be traced back to a John Grogan of Antrim.  By the late 1700s they held Ardcandrisk Estate and Johnstown Castle in Wexford but Cornelius, the owner, was executed for his part in the 1798 rebellion against the Crown.  His brother fought on the other side and was killed in the Battle of Arklow.

Ewart's great-grandfather left Ireland for London and his son, Nicholas, became established in business as a wine merchant and was followed by his son's great success in Real Estate, being appointed as Surveyor General of Houses and Buildings for the Duchy of Lancaster by Queen Victoria. This was William, Ewart's father.

As his mother's first born, he was doted upon in the family and as a result developed a boundless self confidence. Prep school was Grove House, near Guildford, followed, at about age 13, by Winchester.  Here he was academically precocious but his diminutive stature limited his success on the games field where he played some rugby and cricket.  He excelled at rifle shooting and his interest may have been first stimulated by A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa and by King Solomon's Mines and he was determined to get to Africa and experience the hunt for 'Big Game'.

In 1891 he contracted measles. Complications set in and on doctor's orders he was taken out of school for an extended period of rest. Eventually his health stabilised. He then decided (regarding himself now as head of the family) to forsake the shackles of school and depart for Switzerland for the sake of his health.  The plan seemed to work as soon as he reached Zermatt and by his second summer there he had put on four stone in weight and had grown to almost six feet in height. From  a diminutive and sick teenager he had become a strong and competent mountaineer.

See Edward Paice Lost Lion of Empire   for details of Grogan's life.

The time he spent in Switzerland, the seasons from 1892 to 1895 are of most interest here.  The 'grumpy old recluse' that he met and befriended by the hotel fireside turned out to be Edward Whymper who provided advice and lessons on high altitude snow and ice technique.  Alfred Mummery was also there and instructed Grogan on rock climbing skills.

His ascents in 1892, according to his Alpine Club membership application, were:                           Gramont, Dent de Jaman, Dent de Morcles, Petite Dent de Morcles (twice - second time without guides), Diablerets, Grand Moeveron.

1893 -Petits Dent de Morcles, Diablerets,  Dent Jeune/Cime de l'Est, Matterhorn Shoulder (repulsed by bad weather).

At his mother's insistence that he should continue his education he enrolled in Jesus College, Cambridge in 1893.  While there he played rugby and and athletics - hammer throwing and high jump - mainly, it seems to keep fit for his mountaineering endeavours.

In 1894 he was back in the Alps and he had an impressive season: Pierre Cabotz & Tete a Pierre Grept (same day), Matterhorn, Weisshorn, Riffelhorn, Rothotn (traverse), Obergabelhorn (traverse), Dom, Dent Blanche, Petite Aiguille de Charmoz (twice, 1st traverse without guides), Aig de Blaitiere, Grand & Petite Dru (traverse).  The Weisshorn climb almost ended in disaster when he fell into a crevasse and underwent a long drawn rescue.

1895 was to be an eventful year in his life.  It saw the death of his beloved mother to whom he was deeply attached.  Also, following a number of outrageous 'pranks' he was 'sent down' from college.  All this did not impinge on his climbing, for he went back to the Alps for another season of climbing - Rimpfischhorn, Monte Rosa (Nordend), Matterhorn, Dent d'Herens, Riffelhorn (4 times, twice by new route, 1st time without guides).

The result of these endeavours resulted in his being elected as a member of the Alpine Club in 1896 whose profession was recorded as 'undergraduate'.  He was, then, the youngest member of the club.  On the recommendation of his erstwhile guides (Sommermatter and Perron) he was also elected to the Swiss Alpine Club.

Having thus met the challenge of the mountains his mountaineering ambitions seem to have been fulfilled.  Grogan never climbed in the Alps, or anywhere else, again.

Courtesy: Alpine Club

Subsequently he went to Africa and became renowned for being the first person to walk from Cape Town to Cairo, the full length of the continent, spending two and a half years doing so and facing many dangers and 'adventures' from wild animals and native peoples along the way.

See Edward Paice Lost Lion of Empire   for details of this part of Grogan's life and

From the Cape to Cairo by Ewart S. Grogan and Arthur H. Sharp with illustrations by A.D. Mc Cormick

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Ancient Times.

         Mountains in prehistory.       

Booleying.         Lúnasa.

Before 1800                          Mapping of Ireland

   Brian Merriman.                                                Thomas Colby.                         

   Edmund Burke.                                                 John O'  Donovan.

   Darby Field.     

  Buck Whaley.

 Golden Age                        People          

of Alpinism                           19th C                      20th C            

John Ball.                                                            A list 

John Tyndall.                                                     (with links)

 Anthony Adams Reilly.

                                                 

                                                                

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People involved (a list with links)

The following are some of the people involved with mountains, mainly during the 19th Century.  There will be further additions to the list in due course.

 John Ball                                                                1 Mary Burtchell

 Charles Barrington                                                 2 Susan Gavan Duffy

 Richard Barrington                                                 3 Elizabeth Hawkins-Whithed

 James Bryce                                                           4 Elizabeth Le Blond

 Edmund Burke                                                       5 Mrs Main

 Arthur David Mc Cormick                                      6 Mary Tighe

 Richard Cotter                                                         7 Beatrice Tomasson  

Frederick Fitzjames Cullinan                                     8 Louisa Tyndall

Maxwell Cormac Cullinan                                         9. Frederica Plunkett                                                  

 Darby Field                                                                                                                        

Tom Fitzpatrick  

Robert Fowler                                                         

Robert James Graves

William Spottswood Green

Ewart Grogan

 Henry Chichester Hart

Brian Merriman

John Palliser

Richard Pococke

Anthony Adams Reilly

Henry Russell

Henry Swanzy

John Tyndall

Buck Whaley

Arthur Oliver Wheeler

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Darby Field -1642

Darby Field

Darby Field's ascent of Mount Washington, in 1642, when he was about 32 years of age, was recorded by Governor John Winthrop of the Massachusetts Bay Colony in his journal:

"One Darby Field, an Irishman, living about Piscataquack, being accompanied with two Indians, went to the top of the white hill. He made his journey in 18 days... and within 12 miles of the top was neither tree nor grass, but low savins [shrubs], .... Some of them (Indians) accompanied him within 8 miles of the top, but durst go no further, telling him that no Indian ever dared to go higher, and that he would die if he went.

Mt Washington (1,917m)
(Courtesy: https://newenglandtravelplanner.com/)

 So they staid there till his return, and his two Indians took courage by his example and went with him. They went divers times through the thick clouds for a good space, and within 4 miles of the top, they had no clouds but very cold..."

His description of the top of Mount Washington was likewise accurate. Field's feat would be repeated only a handful of times over the next 150 years.

Despite Winthrop's claim that Field was Irish it seems that he had been born in Boston, Lincolnshire and was the son of John Field of London, England, who had emigrated before 1636.

Irish mountains and uplands continued to be frequented by Rapparees and Lughnasa celebrants during this period and 1729 saw the birth of a man who later had a profound influence on the attitude of people towards mountains;  this was Edmund Burke.

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Climbing mountains for pleasure

 As we've seen, travel in and through the mountains took place in many different cultures and in many different places for many different reasons.  Mountains were seen not just as physical entities but represented a wide spectrum of ideas, needs and fears at different times in history.  They were; the sacred places of pilgrimage; barriers to military advances; source of bad weather and the home of dragons and other demons.  They were visited only of necessity.

Croagh Patrick

Croagh Patrick

Christianity may have caused a change in attitude towards mountains and many of the pagan mountain sites were subsumed into Christian practice - Croagh Patrick in Ireland, Harz Mountains in Germany,

Gr St Bernard. Courtesy IAAH

,Great St Bernard Pass in Switzerland -  so that pilgrimages to mountains became part of Christian spirituality.

To climb for the pleasure of doing so!  The Italian, Francesco Petrarca (Petrarch) is regarded as the first person to have climbed a mountain simply "for the view" in April 1336.  Mt Ventoux was close to where he lived and he felt  a "wish to see what so great an elevation had to offer". 

Through the succeeding centuries some mountains in Europe were being climbed by individuals for such 'non utilitarian' reasons:

Antoine de Ville - (d.1504) ordered by the King of France (Charles VIII) to climb Mont Aiguille, then regarded as 'unclimbable', he assailed the mountain with ropes and ladders and succeeded in 1492.  This is regarded as the first ascent of a peak of any technical difficulty and, using techniques far ahead of the time, is considered the first truly "Alpine" climb.

During these centuries there were others who were interested in the Alps and Alpine travel:

Josias Simmler (1530-'76), an academic in Zurich interested in classical accountsof Alpine travel and his work promotes a growing interest in the topography of the Alps. he produced the first book solely related to Th Alps. (Wikipedia).

Conrad Gesner (1516-65), 'his writings were the first to instil a positive delight in the mountains and a joy in the scenery for its own sake'.  His account of the ascent of Mt Pilatus in 1555 is one of the early classics of mountain literature. He declared in a letter to a friend the he " resolved for the future ... to climb mountains, or...to climb one mountain every year".  (Wikipedia)

Conrad Gessner

Josias Simmler

In Ireland there seems to be no evidence that any such activity was taking place although mountain journeys continued to be undertaken, as related earlier, in relation to pilgrimages to holy mountains and Lughnasa festivals.

The earliest mention of an Irishman climbing a significant mountain was Darby Field who made the first ascent of Mt Washington in USA in 1642. (More to follow)

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